The light from the sun sifted through the leaves, well at least it was thought to be the sun. With a place like this light could come from anything; the sun, faerie powers, faes, who knows what else. It was slightly humid as a young black haired female rode on a cerberus through the woods. The leaves on the trees were different shades of pinks, greens, and blues. She looked to her side and seen a multitude of floating balls of lights and knew them to be faes and faeries playing. She turned back and payed attention to the area around her. Her raven flew low through the branches ever watchfull of what might happen.

The aura around this place was almost like a childs storybook of dreams. It certianly felt like she was in one of her dreams as a child, filled with an aura of unknowing and all that other good stuff. She looked as faes chattered on toadstools. From what little faerie language she knew they were talking about some pixie on the other tree. Apparently he was as handsome as the toadstools. She never thought the toadstools to be handsome. "Must be a Fae thing" She said to her other companion, a raven whose eyes were on the lookout for the misjevious faeries known to inhabit the area. Her grey eyes looked around as her Cerberus gave a low growl. Ten seconds later small faerie bags filled with pixie dust fell on the trio. She looked up with a look of "And you think this is funny?" at the group of pixies who were giggling. One waved and chattered something. "Yea well your jokes arent that funny." she said as she stopped her raven from going after them as they fled for cover. Her raven shook itself as she got off her Cerberus and it shook itself freeing it from the dust, blowing it onto the girl. She looked at herself in the reflexion of the small puddle, she looked like she was some sort of glittering five foot faerie without wings. She sighed as she started to try and dust herself off.

Merenwen had made her way into the woods on her path from Ondolond back home. She was planning on visiting her parents and friends for a few days and this had been the most direct path she could take. She also had chosen to take this path because it would allow her to see a part of Arda that she hadn't gotten a chance to explore yet and she was always up for a little exploration. She was running along in her wolf form with her golden harrier, Arien, flying above and keeping her eyes out for anything suspicious ahead.

She didn't expect to come upon anything that would do her any harm as being here seemed more like being in the stories her mother had told her as a child. It was a fantastical place where she could look up and see the most beautiful flowers that almost looked edible and pixies fluttering about here and there. It was always possible that some of the creatures would feel bothered by her presence but she hoped that this wouldn't be the case as it might take away from her own enjoyment as well as their comfort. She didn't like making creatures feel uncomfortable in their own homes and would feel bad if that were to happen.

She darted back and forth making sure not to step on any of the mushrooms nor the fairies and pixies that sat on them and thought she could hear a faint childish laughter rising up from them as she passed. She had no idea what they spoke of nor if they new that she was no ordinary wolf but she chose not to worry about this. As long as they didn't decide to try and hurt her in any way she could just continue through and hope that she wasn't upsetting them. As she thought about this she saw something off in the distance and being the curious type she headed off in that direction. When she reached it she saw that it was a woman on a Cerberus. She thought she recognized the woman from somewhere but there was something that was different from the woman she was thinking of. This woman had a mystical glow about her that Merenwen didn't remember the other woman, Umbra she believed her name to be, as having. Stopping in front of the woman she also looked at the Cerberus and thought it also looked like the one she remembered as belonging to Umbra but it also had a fantastical look about it. She stopped wondering if this was the same woman and cocked her wolf head to the side in a questioning way.

Kira walked amongst the trees, buds popping from thier trunks. Everthing was almost in a gold layer, the trees had a gleam to them. She turned as a small winged creature ran into her back. There was nothing there. Kira muttered under her breath, and turned around. When she returned to the frontward position she found herself facing a pixie. The pixie had something in its hand. It splashed the stuff in her face.

She let out a roar. That dumb pixie had splashed pixie dust all over her face. There was more pixies circling her. They were all splashing the dust all over her. Kira began to mutter under her breath, and then expelled a radi of fear. All the pixies and other fae flew away in a hurry. Kira shouted "yea, that'l teach ya!" Kira resumed her walk through the Mystic Forest.

After a hour or so, Kira sat on a stump, tired after walking. As she sat a rude sound emmited from the stump. She stood quickly to reveal a frog hopping away. Was everthing in this forest child like? Kira let out a sigh and sat on the stump again. She causully flapped her wings. When her wings were fully streched out, a blast of pixie dust hit her wings. Her wings began to look farie like. Kira let out a furious scream as even more pixies began to fly away, giggling like school children.

Kira flew to were she thought the pixies were going. She flew through a lump of branches and landed with a thump in a clearing. There was a girl there, along with a raven and a cereberus. Now that was her kind of animals. There was also a wolf. Kira thought it a pleasent change from such obnoxious pixies. She stood and dusted herself of and said " I'm Kira, who are you?"

Umbra muttered under her breath as she dusted off her pants, her cerberus gave a laugh like growl. "Oh you think its funny? Hows this?" she said and took off her cape whiping it in the air, the dust on it flew on her cerberus as she giggled. "Hey you asked for it." she said pulling it back on her shoulders. Today was sure showing to be fun. She heard a frog nearby as it hopped along. Her cerberus looked at her and she rubbed it behind the ear. "Come on you guys, like I could be mad at you three." she said.

The sun shined sparkling off of her arms, "Dang, I really look like a five tall faerie the way I am glowing. What do you say we get out of here before some more faes drop in on us?" she said and the Cerberus growled in agreement. A lone wolf appeared and cocked its head to the side. She smiled at it. "I bet you think I look like a faerie too don't ya?" she said with a smile finally dusting her top half off. With as much dust in the air she decided against doing her pants. Suddenly someone came from the trees.

She seemed to be interested in the cerberus and the raven. " I'm Kira, who are you?" she said dusting herself off. Umbra smiled. "Names Umbra, glad to meet ya. The cerberus is Rumasak and the raven is Arella" she said and glanced at the wolf wondering where it had come from. "I see you had a run in with those fae huh. Their pranksters at heart. Although they would never intentionally hurt anyone during their jokes, but they are annoying." she said shaking her head to clear her hair of the dust. "The golden dust is just harmless glitters. Its the red and green kind you have to worry about. We got hit with harmless play toys. Like getting water dumped on us, its nothing." she said smiling.

Kira frowned at Umbra and said playfully " yea, well I don't like getting wet." Kira turned to the wolf, that was oddly not fleeing. Kira looked at, wondering why it had not left yet. Realizing that she was staring, she turned back to Umbra. " So whats someone like you doing out in a forest. I'm just wandering around, I don't really have anywhere to go. I'm kinda of heading for Yomenïampa, it's southeast from her." At her last words, her gaze faded. Her family was killed, and her only brother shunned her for her demon heritage.

A small pixie came up to Kira. Kira turned to growl at it, but the creature flicked at her nose. Kira reached out to grab it, but the little thing flew away. It made a childish giggle and made a "ah ah ahh" noise. Kira scowled as the pixie flew away. Not until she had attempted to grasp the Fae had she noticed. While she was regaining her balance she saw a beautiful rainbow. Kira stood, and looked up at it. It was amazing.

Kira let out a gasp. May be she could find a leprechaun. Those little rascals had a pot of gold. Kira made a evil smile, this would pay off if she got her hands on some of the gold. She was running low on rations, and this might be the thing she needed to get some more. As Kira was still staring at the rainbow a Fae flew in her face and splashed a face full off faerie dust in her face. Kira sputtered and began to furiously wipe off the golden powder. " ARGH, get away you dumb faerie." She was just getting annoyed. Instead of pointing out the rainbow, Kira waited Umbra to answer, despite all the interruptions of the Fae and rainbow.

As Merenwen was contemplating turning back into her elven form she noticed another person join there little group. As she looked at the woman she decided that person wasn't quite the right word to be using, she had wings on her back and there was definitely something different about her. Merenwen listened as the new woman gave her name and asked for that of the one she had thought to be Umbra. She was happy to find that she was correct when Umbra responded because it was always nice to come across people she had met and had fun around before.

The more she watched Kira the more uncomfortable she got. Something wasn't quite right about her, it wasn't something tangible but it was a feeling that Merenwen got. The level of annoyance that Kira showed at the goofy pranks of the fae also made Merenwen uncomfortable, it was normal to get annoyed but somehow she just seemed to be getting more annoyed then what Merenwen would have expected.

It was then that Arien began to screech in Merenwen's ears and when Merenwen wondered what the problem was. In her wolf form she wouldn't be able to do much so she decided to change over to her elf form and try to figure out what was making Arien so uncomfortable. When she had changed she saw the tip of her Sinadrin was glowing in a way that it only did around people of evil alignment. Merenwen knew that Umbra wasn't evil but it seemed the same couldn't be said about Kira. The orb wasn't glowing as strongly as it did around purely evil beings but any evil glow tended to make Merenwen uncomfortable.

She looked at Umbra and said, "I thought that was you, though with all the pixie dust I wasn't quite sure." She then turned to Kira and said, "I'm Merenwen and I was hoping maybe you could tell us a little about yourself." She didn't want to just make a straight accusation as it was possible that something else was causing the glow of the orb but she didn't think that was the case and so she wanted to get all the information she could.

Kira turned to face the new guest. While scanning her person she noticed a Sinadrin. That was going to be a problem. Kira wasn't to evil, just her demon heritage could cloud her judgement. She wasn't that evil, and hoped that both the of them would understand her story. Kira turned to Merewen and said " Hi, I'm Kira Xilophent. I'm a half demon and a half angel. I've been shunned from my family, and am abandoned. You see, I appear to have demon wings now, but they change with my alignment. Some times there angelic looking, but not lately. My brother is a full blooded angel, and thought I was dead, and when I revealed I was a half demon, he banned me from the family. His actions caused me great despair, sending me on a demonic rage, causing me to have a more evil side. Now I'm tyring to be good again, and finding that to be quite difficult."

Kira let out a deep breath, after telling her whole life story. Normally she would not spill out her whole life like this, but these girls didn't seem like a evil kinda of people. If she blurted, "yea, I've killed someone," they would probably not be happy. Plus Kira was rather young, and knew little spells, and only had a scimitar as a weapon. She turned to Umbra and said " so, how 'bout a little about you. It seems like I've started story time." Kira erupted in laughter. " HAAHAHAH, ha-ha.... ha" She let out a deep sigh and looked at everyone else, hoping that she didn't kill the mood. She wiped a tear to her eye and scanned the forest. Nothing had changed, the colorful and vivid rainbow remained. Kira waited for every one else, waiting to point it out.

Umbra scratched her cerberus' ears as she spoke to Kira, "Yea they do get annoying. I used to live in a village with a family of Fae's. We were a pretty small village, the kids were pranksters to the core but they never did anything bad to us. Parents were pretty cool to. They were pretty wise in the way of the world. Always knew what to say no matter the situation." she said. "I learned the Fae and Farie language from them. Which is how I know what a bunch of them are saying." she replied

Suddenly the Cerberus began to growl, two of its heads looked at the wolf. She looked at the wolf as it transformed. She pressed her hand against its head as she watched it grew. Her free hand moved slowly to the side untill it rested near the hilt of her holy blade. She relaxed when she saw the familiar figure of Merenwen, "I thought that was you, though with all the pixie dust I wasn't quite sure. I'm Merenwen and I was hoping maybe you could tell us a little about yourself." She said.

Umbra nodded a hello. "I know. I acually glowed gold when I was eleven. That was the biggest surprise for my birthday I ever had. Took me an entire day and a rainstorm to get me back to normal." she laughed. She turned the newcommer and waited for her to talk. " Hi, I'm Kira Xilophent. I'm a half demon and a half angel. I've been shunned from my family, and am abandoned. You see, I appear to have demon wings now, but they change with my alignment. Some times there angelic looking, but not lately. My brother is a full blooded angel, and thought I was dead, and when I revealed I was a half demon, he banned me from the family. His actions caused me great despair, sending me on a demonic rage, causing me to have a more evil side. Now I'm tyring to be good again, and finding that to be quite difficult." Kira said. Umbra looked away, she knew the feelings she had. Umbra had only just began to know the light that could help her. " so, how 'bout a little about you. It seems like I've started story time." Kira said.

Umbra gave a smile, "Well Ironicly I was born in Dori'ba to a Human woman and a Demon man. At the age of three my Uncle killed my mother and my father abandoned me at the Ancient Tower. There I was found by a Drow and an Elf who took me to the village in the Misty Forest. When I was nine a Metamorph called Akito led a group of Angels to the village after convincing them we were a band of evil beings. Most of the people were killed. After that I ran from Arda but I came back a year ago. A few months ago I found the light I had left behind at the hands of an Angel named Zenith Meria. Lets just say that is a fight I will never forget." she said. She noticed a rainbow in the sky but thought nothing of it, rainbows were commonplace here as many leprechans made them to fool theives who want to find the gold. She turned to Kira, "But I know well the feelings of loss and alone Kira, and they are painfull over time. But as long as you never give up the hope of finding the goodness that was once in you, you will find it. Trust me. It took me five years to find mine. But it is still there, right where you left it. I was told my light was in Arda, and guess what? It was here in Arda where I found it, took me five years to get the nerve to come here again but I found it." she said.

Kira looked knowingly at Umbra. " You see, my brother thought I was dead because we were kidnapped for something, I'm not sure yet, but I think angelic blood. Our kidnappers tortured me, and my parents, and when I was about to die, a group of paladins and clerics rescued us. The paladin group took my brother and trained him in the ways of the paladin. I was taken by the clerics to the temple of light for healing, but they discovered I was a half blood so they took me to the temple of dark. I couldn't stand the temple of dark, so about when I was 15, I ran to the temple of nature, and then to the shrine of lightning. Ever since then I have had a strong connection with lightning, but I have learned a lot of dark things."

Kira looked longingly at the Cerberus. She let out a deep sigh. " It seems everyone has a strong connection with a animal of some sort, even my brother had a pet dove when I saw him. I wish I could have a strong bond with a familiar, and I'm always looking for one, but with no luck yet." Kira looked back up, but the rainbow was gone, but several more spurting. leprechans must be just as mischievous as all the other Fae.

Kira looked at the forest, wondering how it seemed so innocent. Everything had to have a dark side. Things weren't always as they seemed. There might be dangerous creatures. Kira secretly hoped that there wouldn't be a battle. If there was a monster in the forest, it would most likely not be pretty. If these Fae were provoked, they could prove formidable foes. She didn't want to have to get up in combat with anything quite yet.

((Sorry for the kind of crappy post but I didn't know what to do as I'm kind of feeling like Mere doesn't fit thus far in the topic.))

Merenwen stood and listened as Kira told her story. The fact that she said that her wings changed with her current alignment seemed like a bad thing to say because if that was so then she must be in her evil rather then good alignment, if the other side was good and not merely neutral. In Merenwen's opinion telling them that was a bad idea, all she could see it doing was telling them that she was controlled by evil currently and though Merenwen didn't plan to attack her without a reason she wasn't sure that she was comfortable around someone who was controlled by demonic urges.

She didn't get a chance to talk because Kira asked Umbra to tell her own story and as Merenwen listened to the two talk she began to feel as if she didn't belong. She was a pureblood elf and had never had to deal with having an evil half. She also felt a little uncomfortable with how easily Umbra was accepting the other half demon even when it had been shown that evil was at least in part emanating from her. Merenwen had used her sinadrin on Umbra when they had first met and no evil had been shown which only proved that it wasn't just picking up on the demonic side of the girl but something deeper.

She found it odd to listen to Umbra, they had not talked much when they had first met and she had never thought to ask for her background. She hadn't worried about that question much at all since getting her sinadrin unless the person showed up with some level of evil. Even so, hearing her story was interesting as Merenwen had never realized how much of a connection she had with Zenith. It seemed they were a lot more heavily connected then she had ever suspected when she had first met Umbra and Zenith had been there. Then again, they had quickly become occupied with their snowball fight and it hadn't exactly been a day of talking.

She was glad that Umbra had found her good side and that now that side controlled her. She also hoped that the same would someday happen for Kira, but until then she would continue to be suspicious. A part of her was beginning to wonder whether she had any reason to hang around, especially considering the fact that they both seemed to be almost ignoring her any more. This feeling was only added to when Umbra seemed to talk only to Kira and concentrated on their connection to each other. Neither girl seemed to pay any attention to the fact that she was standing there, they were too busy talking about their own similarities.

When Kira again took over the conversation Merenwen sighed to herself and looked at Arien who was sitting on her shoulder. She mumbled to Arien in a voice neither of the other girls would hear, "I'm not sure what to do but I'm thinking we may head off before too long." After she had mumbled that she tuned back into what Kira was saying and saw that again more off the attention seemed to be on Umbra or her Cerberus at least. She was talking about how she wished she felt connected to animals and wished she had a familiar of her own but even when saying this she paid no attention to Merenwen or her own familiar.

Merenwen sighed when Kira had finished talking and looked around wondering what she should do. She still had some worries about Kira but she didn't want to be rude. She looked back at the two and said, "If you give it time I'm sure you will find a familiar that you will love eventually. Sometimes it can be something as simple as walking along and running into a creature that needs help and other times finding the right animal for yourself can be much harder but you just have to trust that you will find the right one and not try to rush things."

She still couldn't decide what she should do because it felt odd to stand there when she really didn't have the connection they did. She really wanted to hang with Umbra more and might even be up for giving Kira a chance to prove that she had no evil intentions but she didn't want to just continue standing around and listening to the two talk about their childhoods. She thought about seeing if they wanted to explore with her but thought it was possible that the area wasn't new to them and if that was the case they would have no reason to want to explore so she decided not to say anything more just yet. She would see what happened and if she continued to feel out of place she would either bring up something to do or possibly even head off. She did want to get home before too much more time had passed but was willing to put it off a little more if she had something interesting to do.

Kira looked at Umbra with a sence of knowing,"You see, my brother thought I was dead because we were kidnapped for something, I'm not sure yet, but I think angelic blood. Our kidnappers tortured me, and my parents, and when I was about to die, a group of paladins and clerics rescued us. The paladin group took my brother and trained him in the ways of the paladin. I was taken by the clerics to the temple of light for healing, but they discovered I was a half blood so they took me to the temple of dark. I couldn't stand the temple of dark, so about when I was 15, I ran to the temple of nature, and then to the shrine of lightning. Ever since then I have had a strong connection with lightning, but I have learned a lot of dark things." She said. Umbra looked away, she knew what it was like to be called evil and dark when she was not even close.

" It seems everyone has a strong connection with a animal of some sort, even my brother had a pet dove when I saw him. I wish I could have a strong bond with a familiar, and I'm always looking for one, but with no luck yet." Kira said. Umbra turned, "A bond between a familiar and a person is not an easy one to make, not only must the familar trust you but you have to trust it." she said. "If you give it time I'm sure you will find a familiar that you will love eventually. Sometimes it can be something as simple as walking along and running into a creature that needs help and other times finding the right animal for yourself can be much harder but you just have to trust that you will find the right one and not try to rush things." Merenwen added Umbra nodded at the comment.

Umbra then turned to Merenwen. "You know...We never got a chance to really introduce ourselves the last time we met. And Kira and I have both talked about ourselves, why dont you tell us something about yourself Merenwen. And maybe after that we could walk around. I really hate to admit this but its my first time here in The mystic forest. I was hoping I could learn the landscape better." she said.

When Umbra asked Merenwen to tell them some about herself she didn’t know what to say. Her story was nothing like theirs, in fact, her childhood had been uneventful in many ways. She hadn’t ever had an internal struggle with the evil inside her; the good had always been strong. She had grown up with her own kind and the biggest problem she had was proving herself to the guys so that they wouldn’t be afraid of hurting her when she joined them in activities. It wasn’t until after she had left home that she had begun to get into trouble, though her stories from during her travels might actually be interesting to them. Even so, if they wished to hear her story then she would tell it, it wasn’t as if she had anything she felt the need to hide.

“My story really isn’t very interesting. I was born in Yomenïampa and lived there until I decided that I wanted to travel and see the world when I turned 19. As a child I was rather adventurous and often found myself hanging with the guys as the games they played seemed much more exciting to me. As I grew up I felt a heavy connection to water and a want to see all of Arda so I headed out. It is only after I headed out that things got really interesting for me. I learned that I was one of the four elemental sisters who were being hunted by two evil men. I met up with those men but luckily I was able to get out alive. The only other thing that in some ways gives is similar to what you said, Kira, was that I was at one time kidnapped while in Lómëdor and had to find my way out. That really is about all there has been to my life, I’m afraid there isn’t nearly as much to me but I hope I didn’t bore you,” she said.

Merenwen sighed deeply and glanced around the forest once more thinking about Umbra’s second question. She knew that she should be getting home but she really did want to see more of the forest and considering she wasn’t expected it wasn’t like her parents would be scared if she didn’t make it home when she had planned. With that thought in mind she said, “I must also admit that this is my first time traveling through these woods. I really would enjoy exploring them more with the two of you, that is if you would both really like to as well.”